Melody In Red
by HosekiDragon
Summary: Danny finds himself in over his head in trouble when two giant ghost animals fight their way into his parent's lab. And leave behind someone who could change Danny's destiny...for the worse. Rated T for blood and violence.
1. Chapter 1

Okay, so this is my first attempt at a Danny Phantom fan fiction and I've only just started getting into the show so I don't know a lot about it. Please don't reprimand me about things like character details and what happens in the show. 1) I really don't want it ruined for me and 2) it's just plain rude.

The only reason this is getting posted is because I need something for readers to look forward to while Digitaldreamer betas my Psychonauts fanfiction and I desperately, desperately need to work on something else!

Thanks, many thanks, for your cooperation and thanks again for taking the time to check out this fan fiction. I hope you enjoy it! Please R&R!

**One: Foxes and Hamburgers **

Danny Fenton arrived home to find himself alone; no Jazz, no Mom, and no Dad. Just him. All by his lonesome. It wasn't the first time and it probably wasn't going to be the last but Danny was comfortable with that, there were days when he needed a little 'me time' all to himself.

On the other hand, he was hungry. Throwing his school bag on a vacant chair, he walked over the fridge and started digging around inside it. Some flat soda, something that might have been meatloaf at one point in history, a couple of bruised apples, and…

"Sweet! Leftover hamburgers!" The boy straightened up, kicking the fridge shut as he turned around, opened the container, and started eating them cold, too lazy to bother warming them up. A crash from down in his parents' lab made him freeze and set the container on the counter beside him and creep towards the stairs. Something pricked the back of his mind and his ghost sense went off, making his eyes narrow and flash to green as he went 'ghost', and he dashed down the stairs only to skid to a stop, mouth a gape.

Tussling in the mess scattered across the floor were two, giant animals, snarling and snapping at each other, both slightly translucent. One was what appeared to be a tabby cat, one of its ears was ripped off and it was covered in parallel stripes. The other was obviously a fox, its fur was a deep red and there was white splotches on its feet, muzzle, and the end of its tail. The two rolled across the floor, tearing at each other, until the fox kicked the cat towards the wall where it phased through, last instant. Then the great vulpus turned its glowing eyes on Danny.

"_Human child…"_ The deep voice was strained with pain and all Danny could do was stare, fascinated by this huge, animal ghost, _"I don't know who you are but I ask you one thing and one thing alone. Protect my treasure. Do you promise this? Do you promise to protect my amethyst treasure?"_

Danny could only nod stupidly.

"_Then I entrust her to you…protect her with your life!"_ The fox ghost launched itself through the wall and, after a few moments of blinking and gapping at nothing, Danny followed.

The fight had taken to the skies but it was clear who was going to lose. The fox was being pushed back and Danny longed to help but he just couldn't find an opening. All he could do was watch and hope that the fox ghost would come out alive. But this was not to be. Clamping its jaws around the neck of the cat, the fox curled over, red energy flaring off its body in blinding waves.

"_Foolish child! What're you doing! Run!"_

"Run!?" Danny shouted over the roar of energy flying through the air, "From what!?"

"_The blast, you fool! Run!"_

"Wha-!?" But the fox couldn't contain his power any longer and an explosion of red energy sent Danny tumbling head over heels through the air, shaking the very bones in his body. When he got his bearings back, the skies were empty. No sign of a ghostly fox or cat in sight. Danny pushed his white hair from his glowing green eyes and phased back through into his parents' lab, which was a mess.

Returning to his human form, he looked around at the mess, hands in his pockets, and sighed deeply. He was always left to clean up after the ghosts that came through the Ghost Zone, picking fights with himself or each other. A low, whimpering sound cut his thoughts off and he raised an eyebrow, turning his blue eyes this way and that, searching for the source of the noise.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" He called, not really expecting an answer, "Hello? Mr. Fox dude? Are you there?" He picked his way through the wreckage, wincing at the smeared blood and broken equipment, "Hey! Is someone there!? I can hear you!"

A box shifted next to an over turned table and Danny made his way over there, kicking the box aside, wary about getting to close to what was beneath it.

"Hey little fella', what're you-whoa!" The youth jerked away from a small ghost fox that was snapping weakly at him, its hackles raised. The thing looked half starved.

"Geez, no need to get snippy with me…!" Danny muttered, scowling at the little fox as it growled and then went back to its whimpering, "I just-hey, what's that?" Hardly daring to lean closer, Danny squinted at something that was shining between the fox's front paws; a small, violet, gem set in silver on a thin silver chain.

"_You…human…"_ The fox's eyes cracked open, a blur of deep purple sparkling at him, _"Who are you?"_

"Danny. Danny Fenton. Um, are you, by any possible chance, uh, some sort of amethyst treasure?"

"_My name…is Amethyst…if that is what you're asking…My father…was the great fox…"_ The creature whimpered again, _"Please, Danny, do you have any food? I…haven't eaten anything…"_

Danny didn't hesitate to ask why a ghost would need to eat, he simply scooped up the fox and carried her up the stairs, setting her on the table as he looked around for something to feed her. The container of leftover hamburgers was still sitting on the counter where he'd left it and he picked a couple out, tossing them on the table in front of the fox. She immediately started eating as Danny reached for his phone.

"Hey Tucker?" Amethyst stopped eating and pricked her ears in his direction, "Yeah, are you busy? Can you come over for a while? No…well, it might be a problem." Danny shot a worried, blue-eyed glance at her, "Really, it's cool? Great. Get Sam for me too, would you? Sweet. See you in a few!" And he hung up.

"_Who was that? Was that thing talking back to you?"_

It took Danny a minute to figure out that Amethyst had been asking about the phone.

"No, see, I just called my friend Tucker on it. It's called a telephone." This was weird, even spirits from the Ghost Zone knew about modern day technology, "It lets you talk to people from far away."

"_Strange."_ Amethyst said, licking his chops, _"Is this your den, Danny? Are you Clan Leader?"_

"Clan Leader? What? Den? No, this is a house." He fell into a chair at the table, "And it's my parent's house. By the way, why are you here?"

Amethyst didn't say anything, just stood and stretched, fluffy tail curling over her back. Danny watched her, raising an eyebrow. Here he was, talking to a ghost fox for no apparent reason. It felt odd. The doorbell rang and he jumped.

"Hold on, I'll be right back!" He stood up, "Don't do anything!" And he ran for the door, throwing it open when he reached it.

"Hi Danny!" It was Tucker and Sam.

"Hey, come on, come on!" Danny grabbed their hands and dragged them inside before slamming the door, leading them towards the kitchen, "You're not going to believe this!"

Amethyst was still on the table, licking the gem around her neck now. She snarled and bristled when Sam and Tucker followed Danny into the room.

"Danny…why is there a ghost fox on your table?" Sam asked warily.

"Amethyst, cut it out!" The ghostly hero waved his hands at the fox, "Bad fox, bad!"

She stuck her nose up at him, ears flat, and turned around so the trio was looking at her back. Obviously she was insulted. Danny felt his face burn.

"Look, ah, I didn't mean it and, um, I-."

"Can't take anything seriously that's small and fuzzy." Finished Tucker, "Or a ghost."

"Shut it, Tucker!"

"_You think I'm a joke, Danny?"_ Amethyst growled, _"Will you take me seriously now?"_

Red energy pulsated off her, she lost her translucent look, turning solid, and stood on all fours. A blinding flash of crimson light and perched on the table where the ghost fox had been sat a girl about Danny's age. She had deep red hair, faint freckles, and bright purple eyes. Her outfit was simple; a red shirt, a hooded black jacket with white stripes, and a pair of taupe pants decorated with lightning bolts on the bottom. It wasn't exactly stylish but it seemed to fit her well. And the violet gem still hung on its silver chain around her neck.

"So there's a talking ghost fox who can turn into a real girl? What's the problem Danny?" Tucker shrugged, "Why'd you drag us over here? I was just about to beat my him score on Pac Man!"

"Ignorant human boy!" Amethyst snapped and Sam scowled at her, "I am **not** a freak show!" She pushed her red hair over her shoulder, slipping off the table, looking angry with herself, "I suppose…I'm hiding until things settle down in the Ghost Zone."

"Hiding from who?" Sam asked.

"Probably any more of those giant cats!" Danny put in, "Like the one that was fighting with…the…giant…" The Fenton boy trailed off, color draining from his face as he looked at Amethyst, "Uh-oh…!"

"Danny…!" Tucker and Sam said at the same time, "What did you do!?"

"The giant fox ghost who was fighting the cat…told me to protect…you…indirectly speaking…!"

"My father!?" Amethyst cried, "My **father**!? The Yokai Ghost Fox Clan Leader told a mere human child to protect me!?"

"Well, I was ghost then!" The black-haired youth cried defensively, clenching his fists.

"You're that halfa!" Shouted the fox-girl and then jumped about a foot in the air as the door opened and slammed shut again.

"DAAAAAANNNYYYYYY!" Jazz called, walking into the kitchen, "DAA-oh!" She'd noticed the four kids standing around the table with an empty food container, "Did I interrupt something important?"

"Uhhh…!" Tucker stuttered, looking from, Danny, to Sam, to Amethyst, to Jazz, "Ummmm…n-no…!"

"A…uh…friend…!" Sam gave a nervous smile and threw an arm around Amethyst's shoulders, the other girl stiffening at the touch, "From…over seas…! Just…visiting!"

"Well, whatever, just get your homework done, okay Danny?" Jazz smiled a little **too** sweetly and walked up the stairs.

"Wonder what's bugging her…" Danny muttered and then turned to Amethyst who had pushed Sam off of her once Jazz had left, "Look, Amethyst, you can't stay here!"

"She can stay with me! I've got plenty of room!" Sam replied hurriedly as Amethyst opened her mouth to snap at Danny, "Plus, I can help her blend in."

"But she can't stay at your house alone when you're at school!" Tucker said, "What if one of those ghost cats Danny mentioned shows up!? What then!?"

The three friends looked at one another and then at the fox girl who was apparently fascinated with the refrigerator.

"Guess she's coming to school with us." Danny said, "Oh boy…she's just the kind of person Dash would pick on too! And I'd hate to think of what would happen if she went all nasty-fox-ghost in the halls!"

"Guess you're doing the dog training this time Sam…!" Tucker snickered.

"Oh no!" Sam shook her head, "That's Danny's job! He trains the ghosts! I stand back and watch the drama unfold!"

"I can't keep her in this house!" Danny shouted back, "GAH!" The boy slapped his forehead, exasperated, "Okay, okay, okay…! Look, Sam, please, I'm begging you, just make sure Amethyst stays out of trouble since she's obviously not going to go back into the Ghost Zone anytime soon…!"

"Why don't you just use the Thermos and **make** her go back?" Sam scowled again, crossing her arms, suddenly deciding she didn't like her own plan anymore.

"Well…um…" Danny rubbed the back of his neck, looking over his shoulder at Amethyst while Tucker continued to stifle his laughter, "Well…she's not exactly **bad** or anything…"

Sam shook her head and sighed. Despite the fact of him being totally clueless and a slight goof-off, Danny Fenton had a point.

"Alright, fine, I'll keep her at my place until she's ready to go home…!" The Goth girl stalked up to Amethyst and snatched the other girl's upper arm; Amethyst barred her teeth, "Cut it out! You're coming with me and you're going to listen to me unless you **want** some ghost cat to find you!" Amethyst quit snarling and shut her mouth, "Good!" Sam dragged the fox-girl out the door, glaring daggers at Danny the whole time.

"I think you owe her your soul now, Danny." Tucker muttered and the other boy laughed nervously.

"I think you're right, Tuck," Danny shrugged helplessly, "I'm gonna be her slave for life."

The two friends burst into peals of laughter and high-fived, almost forgetting about the fact that Amethyst was a ghost fox from the Ghost Zone, almost forgetting that her father had sacrificed his life to destroy a ghost cat from the same place, and almost forgetting that they could all be in more danger than before. Almost.

----

Next time on 'Melody in Red'

Danny: Hey, who does previews anymore? That's for old lame shows! My show's so cool, I don't **need** previews to be popular.

Tucker: Okay, so, then what're we supposed to do?

Sam: (looking extremely bored)

Danny: Oooh, oooh, I know! We can call it 'Mirror Phantom'! You can do anything you want and we'll make it a flippen' party!

Sam: And you expect EmptyHeart to take that lying down?

Tucker: Yeah, man, she's gonna come after you with a torch and pitchfork thing going on! Scary!

Danny: Psh! I don't care! (sticks his tongue out) She can kiss my butt!

Sam: This is going to be bad…


	2. Chapter 2

Hello and welcome to the lovely chapter two! I have no idea what I'm doing! Yeah! (smashes her head into the keyboard) Okay, no, seriously, um, I don't like what's happening right now and I'm mad that I can't watch Danny Phantom whenever I want to and it doesn't help that some guys just totally piss me off!

Ahhhg! Anyway, please, please, please, please, **please** tell me what you think! Trust me, this first installment of 'Melody in Red' may seem pretty lame but I have huge, macho, awesomely cool plans for a sequel that will rock your socks onto your head! But first, we have to get through the first one…

**Two: A Fox's Tail**

"You're name is Sam?" Amethyst asked, following the Goth girl down the street, "Are you Danny's mate?"

Sam's face went beet red but she was walking in front of Amethyst so the fox-girl didn't see.

"No…! We're just…really close friends, that's all." Sam glanced over her shoulder to see Amethyst starring around at her surroundings, "You're different from the other ghosts; they all know about technology and modern day stuff. You're totally clueless."

"I'm not like the other ghosts. No Yokai is." Amethyst turned her attention back to Sam, violet eyes flashing, "We've never left the Ghost Zone before and we try not to; our affairs mean little to your world or the rest of the Ghost Zone."

"Why don't you leave?"

"We're too busy fighting. That's all we really know. In the deepest, most secretive pits of the Ghost Zone we battle out our wars and they're places I suggest you and your halfa friend stay away from…! It's a death trap to anyone else." Her grim features became a sneer, "Of course, just because we don't leave doesn't mean we don't hear news. Every Yokai Ghost Clan member has heard of the infamous half-ghost, half-human but I never expected it to be a little boy…!"She sounded a little awed even though her face was screwed up into a smirk.

"So…" Sam pushed open the door to her house and ushered Amethyst inside, "What exactly **are** you? I mean, you keep talking about these Yokai Ghosts but…what exactly **is** a Yokai Ghost?"

"I am a Yokai Fox, a Demon Fox." The red-head replied, following Sam up a flight of stairs, "Like I said, we live in the deepest parts of the Ghost Zone, where we've fought wars for centuries for no apparent reason, and where even some of the most powerful ghosts don't dare venture. There are twelve tribes of Yokai and many, many sub-clans to all of those. But every race of Yokai has the ability to go from animal to **this**," She waved a hand at her human form with a slight note of disgust in her voice, "And that makes us all the more dangerous. There are, however, a few clans who refuse to fight and put their skills to more, shall we say, **productive** means."

"What're the twelve tribes?" The duo moved down a long stretch of hall.

"Hold on, I'm getting there, the twelve tribes are based upon the twelve animals of your human world Chinese zodiac: the horse, the rooster, the dragon," She began ticking them off on her fingers, "the rat, the boar, the bull, the ram, the monkey, the dog, the rabbit, the tiger, and the snake. I am part of the Yokai Dog Tribe; sub-clan Yokai Fox…the last surviving member it appears." Her voice dropped into dejected tones and Sam felt a little sorry for her.

"Here, you can have this room." The Goth girl opened a door to a spare bedroom and Amethyst stepped slowly inside, looking this way and that as though looking out for enemies before sitting down on the bed. Sam flopped into a chair by the wall.

"Our mortal enemies were a very low sub-clan of Yokai Tiger, the Yokai Tabby Clan." Amethyst continued her tale without any prompting, apparently too caught up in her feelings to care, "They basically have the appearance of ordinary human world house cats but are extremely jealous, easily angered, and always power hungry. We've been fighting them off our territory for a long time but they made a temporary truce with the Yokai Lion Clan and overpowered us. My father was determined I should make it out alive." Her eyes sparkled and she clenched her fingers so tightly around the blankets folded neatly on the bed that her knuckles turned white, "But as we escaped a Yokai Tabby caught up with us and attacked. The fight dragged out for days, both sides weakened, eventually somehow making it into your world…where Danny seemed to have stumbled upon them."

"I'm…er…I…I'm sorry about your father…" Sam murmured, "Really…I bet Danny feels terrible too, though he'll never admit it."

"No," Amethyst shook her head, "I'd seek vengeance on them if I could but they're too numerous for me to manage alone. And I don't have the skills my father had. I was raised in a world of war and war is all I've ever known; the constant vying for power, the struggle to move up the chain…that was what I saw every day."

"Sounds like a rather violent version of our world…!" Sam snorted, getting to her feet, "Well, I suppose, it's first things first! Everyone's going to think you're a foreign exchange student or something so it's time to start acting like a normal high school kid!"

"Why do I have to act like a student?"

"Otherwise you'll stand out and that could be bad for you **and** Danny!"

"Like I care what happens to the halfa-boy!"

"You will when a ghost cat rips your head off…!"

Amethyst made a growling noise that sounded strange coming from a human girl. Sam rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

"First of all; no more growling, snapping, snarling, barking, biting, barring teeth, or anything that might relate to animal like activities! They'll lock you up for that! You have to act like a human!"

"I can't act like something I know nothing about!" Amethyst snapped back, "Yokai **hate** humans! Oops…" She put her hand over her mouth, cheeks turning pink, "Well, most of us do. The Yokai Foxes didn't…" Her hair fell over her shoulders, shadowing her face, "I should apologize for the way I've been acting since we've met. It's just that things have been happening so fast lately and I really don't know what to do about anything. I'm completely lost in this world; it's so strange to me; and I suppose I really do need your help fitting in." Violet eyes locked with lilac ones, "So I'm sorry for anything I've said that might have offended you or your friends and I'm asking for you help…Sam." Amethyst gave a small smile and Sam smiled back; she was still wary of the fox girl but not so much now. The Goth girl sighed and decided it was finally time to start the education.

"Alright, 'Blending In With Humans for Yokai 101'!"

----

Tucker and Danny waited nervously outside Sam's front door for the two girls to come out the next morning. Tucker nervous about whether Amethyst was going to rip his head off or not and Danny worried about if the ghost-fox had already done it to Sam. The front door opened and Sam walked out followed by Amethyst who had a black backpack decorated with spider-webs slung off her shoulder. She looked like a perfectly normal human girl. Danny and Tucker both sighed in relief, grinning, and Sam rolled her eyes; Amethyst looked at all of them in confusion. The four of them headed off down the street.

"So, maybe you should explain your situation to Danny and Tucker." Sam said, "Since, well, Danny's the one with the ghost powers and all."

Amethyst complied and told the two boys what she had told Sam last night. Danny was awfully sympathetic but Tucker still seemed wary and refused to walk beside the Yokai Ghost girl. When Amethyst questioned his actions, Danny and Sam both shrugged and said: "He's Tucker."

School was something else entirely. Sam had to convince the principal that Amethyst was visiting from over-seas and, though she would not be staying, was going to be studying at the school for the period of the time she was going to stay in Amity Park. Amethyst herself was unsettled about being around so many people and was tense all day. But it all fell apart very near the end of the day.

The four of them were walking down the hall, passing Dash and Quan, when Dash stuck out his foot and tripped Amethyst. The girl slammed into the floor, paper, books, and pencils flying across the tile. She groaned and Dash and Quan laughed, high-fiving.

"Amethyst, are you okay!?" Danny asked.

"Errrrhhhggg…!" The red-haired girl scrambled to her feet, glaring at the two jocks. Dash noticed her glower and scowled at her.

"You wanna go, New Kid!?" He shoved her and she stumbled backwards, "Come on! I'll take you down!"

"Leave her alone, Dash!" Danny shouted and then turned to Amethyst and his two friends, "Come on you guys, let's get out of here…!"

"Two-timing, Fen-turd!?" Dash sneered, picking up the black-haired youth by his pants and throwing him against the lockers, "That's low!"

Danny smashed into the lockers and landed on the floor with a groan. Sam and Tucker rushed to his side.

"Hey, Red-Head!" Quan grabbed the front of Amethyst's shirt, "What's your problem!? Don't got anything to say!?"

"Let **go** of me!" She snarled, pushing at his strong grip, "You stink! Both of you! Let…me…GO!"

"No one says I stink and gets away with it!" Dash shoved Quan aside, snatched Amethyst's jacket up and raised a fist to punch her in the face.

"What's going on here!?" Someone pushed their way through the crowd of kids forming a ring around the scene, "What's all this noise!?" It was Lancer and when he saw Dash holding Amethyst with a raised fist he went as white as a blank test sheet, "Mr. Baxter just what do you think you're doing with that foreign student!?"

"She-uh-I-uh…!" Dash let go of Amethyst and she landed on her feet on the floor, "Well, see, I was-!"

"He tripped me!" Amethyst growled, pointing at the blonde football player and there was a collective gasp from the other kids, "And then he threw Danny into the lockers!" She then pointed at Danny who was rubbing his arm where a purple bruise was beginning to form, "And then **he**," She pointed at Quan, "Grabbed me so I told him to let me go and then the Dash-boy shoved him out of the way and was going to punch me in the face!" She was absolutely furious but it was nothing compared to the way Lancer looked; he was livid with rage and ready to kill.

"Dash Baxter! I want you in my office right **now**! And bring your friend with you…!" And he stalked off. As Dash and Quan followed him, Dash glared back over his shoulder and mouthed the words: "I'll get you" before disappearing. The other students dispersed, murmuring about the red-haired foreign girl who had the guts to stand up to Dash. Danny, Sam, and Tucker all rushed over as Amethyst began scooping up her belongings.

"That…was…incredible!" Tucker gasped, eyes sparkling with awe, "That was the most amazing thing I've seen in all my school life!"

"I can't believe it!" Danny cried, slapping Amethyst on the shoulder, "You stood up to Dash **and** got him in trouble! Two things I've been trying to do for the longest time…!"

"I don't understand, what did I do that was so amazing?" The ghost fox tucked her belongings under her arm and the group continued down that hall.

"Lancer listened to you! A student! About Dash!" Sam exclaimed, "Lancer always believed that Dash could never do wrong! I can't believe he actually listened to you and got Dash into trouble!"

"Is that Dash-boy a problem?" Amethyst inquired, "Does he do things like that often?"

"All the time…!" Danny muttered over Tucker who sounded like he was chanting halleluiah, "I'm his main target; not a school day has gone by where he hasn't at least punched me, tripped me, kicked me, stolen my books, ruined my homework, made me eat something gross, shut me in my own locker, thrown me into something, tied me to my desk, hung me from the flagpole, stuck gum in my hair, or publicly humiliated me in any way shape or form."

"Why don't you do something about it then!?" Amethyst's violet eyes burned as she rounded on him and the other three stopped short, "You're the halfa! You have powers! **Do** something about the blonde boy!"

"Well…see…" Tucker stepped up to the plate this time, "It's kind of a secret that Danny's…you know…got ghost powers." He whispered the last words, "And we kinda' wanna keep it that way."

"But why?"

"Because most people around here don't really like ghosts." Sam said, "And that's putting it lightly…!"

"Let's go home," Danny ran his fingers through his black hair, pushing it out of his face, "I've had enough excitement for one day…!"

The other three nodded in agreement and followed the flood of students leaving through the front doors, many of them were starring at Amethyst and whispering behind their hands. This was exactly what Danny Fenton had not wanted; the Yokai Ghost Fox girl getting a lot of attention.

Next time on 'Melody in Red'

Tucker: Whoa! Danny, I think you need to watch where you're going with those light poles; you almost took my eye out…!

Danny: Sorry Tuck, I'm trying to jazz this place up a bit! It's so boring! We need party lights and music and disco balls!

Sam: Bad feeling here guys…!

Jazz: Danny, what're you doing?

Danny: Jazz! What're you doing here!?

Jazz: I don't know, I opened my bedroom door and I showed up here…! What is this?

Tucker: 'Mirror Phantom'! You can do and say anything you want!

Sam: **Almost **anything you want! EmptyHeart's going to kill you Danny.

Jazz: Who's EmptyHeart?

Danny: Tch, yeah right! Like she'd kill Danny Phan-OH MY GOSH!! SHE'S GOT A KNIFE! TUCKER! SAM! SAVE ME!! AHHHHHHGGGG!!!

EmptyHeart: Why're you running Danny!? I just want to CARVE YOUR HEART OUT YOU LITTLE GHOST BRAT!!!!

Sam: It feels good to say I told you so.


	3. Chapter 3

Eh, I should be working on other things but this is our second Snow Day in a row and I don't really feel like working on anything else. I hardly feel like working on this! I want to watch more Danny Phantom!

Sam: Finally lost interest in killing Danny?

EmptyHeart: No, no…I got revenge on him for ruining my preview studio.

Sam: Well, where is he?

(cuts to Danny hanging upside down from some random tree, unable to go ghost)

Danny: This means payback…

**Three: Will You Fight Me?**

A thin trail of blue wafted out of Danny's mouth and he pulled up short on the sidewalk. Sam, Tucker, and Amethyst stopped too.

"What? What's going on?" Amethyst asked as the other three looked this way and that.

"There's a ghost nearby…!" Danny muttered under his breath, "**Really** near by!"

Amethyst sniffed the air and growled, the gem on her chest glowing with an inward light.

"Cat…!" She snarled, "Yokai Tabby…! They're looking for their scout, the one who attacked my father and I…"

"Or they're looking for you." Tucker said, "Danny, I think now would be a good time to 'go ghost'…!"

Danny ducked into an alley and there was a flash of light and out flew Danny Phantom, hovering in the air above the buildings, peering over the streets. Tucker and Sam watched him with worried expressions and Amethyst continued to sniff around, trying to hone in on her arch enemy's scent. Her eyes widen and she whirled to shout up at Danny,

"BEHIND YOU, HALFA!"

An invisible paw smashed into Danny's back before he could turn and sent him tumbling head over heels through the air. As the ghost-boy regained his balance, he saw the Yokai Tabby become visible. It was even bigger than the one Amethyst's father had been fighting and it had plated armor down its back and legs and a steel helmet on its head. It hissed at him, ears flat back.

"_Halfa-Boy! Tell me where the Yokai Fox is! I can smell her on you!"_

"No!" Danny charged a palm blast and fired his green energy at the Yokai, hitting it square in the nose where its helmet open up to let it breath; it yowled and rolled back, "Pick on someone your own size, stupid cat!"

"_Insolent fool!"_ The cat's claws extended and its tail lashed the air, people below screaming and diving for cover from the huge ghost-beast, _"I'll tear you to pieces! Tell me where she is!"_

"I'd like to see you try and get me!" Danny smirked, "Come on!" He took a stance, "You over-sized kitty! To much Meow-Mix, I think!"

The cat charged at him and Danny swerved out of the way, firing his palm blasts with merciless ferocity but they just ricocheted off the armor on the cat's back. As he dodged his own blasts, the halfa failed to notice the cat's tail curling out behind him and then it was too late; it had curled around him, pinning his arms to his sides and squeezing him. Danny cried out, gasping as his lungs were crushed, and Sam and Tucker called his name. Amethyst made to turn into her Yokai form but Sam stopped her, shaking her head.

"He'll know it's you and that'll cause Amity Park even more trouble!"

"_Like it, Ghost-Boy!?"_ The Yokai Tabby made a sound that could have been a laugh, _"I thought you were going to take me down, Brat!"_ The tail squeezed tighter and there was a sickening crack; Danny screamed in agony, tears forming at the edges of his green eyes.

"I have to help him!" Amethyst snapped, pulling away from Sam, "It's **my** fault he's in this mess! **I'm** partially responsible! **I'm** going to make it better!" And her body went translucent, "Don't worry about me," She grinned at Sam and Tucker, "I'll mask my scent." And she soared upwards.

Danny struggled in the cat's tail, jostling his broken ribs, screaming even more, when a sharp silver claw poked at his throat. He gulped.

"_You're really annoying…!"_ The cat hissed, _"I think I'll kill you now…maybe the boss will let me ea-."_

He was cut off by a bolt of red lightning slicing through his tail and cutting it in half; Danny freed himself and doubled over, clutching his side, wheezing slightly. Amethyst was suddenly beside him, glowing with red energy, slightly translucent. She pushed his hands out of the way and put her own on his side. Red light glowed briefly and Danny **felt** his ribs mending inside of him. He grinned at her and straightened up, clenching his fists.

"Time to send the kitty back to the shelter!" He called over the cat's yowls, "Let's go!"

"_Two!? Two halfas!?_"The cat was completely overwhelmed, _"Why didn't we hear about this!? Where'd she come from!?"_

"Stop talking and fight!" Amethyst dove beneath the cat where there was no armor and sent a sliver of red lighting slicing through its underbelly, "What kind of Yokai stands around and chats!? You call yourself a fighter!"

"You're one to talk!" Danny called back, kicking the Yokai Tabby on the chin, jerking its head up, "Are you always like this!?"

"Only when I'm ticked!" Amethyst replied, slamming her fist into the cat's eye, "Ewwww! That felt gross!"

"Everybody cover their ears!" Danny yelled and took in a deep breath. Sam and Tucker dropped to the ground, slapping their hands over their ears, and Amethyst dropped down beside them, pulling her hood over her head. Danny's ghostly wail still shook the buildings and made Amethyst wince, her sensitive fox hearing not a real help. The cat, however, had it the worst, it screeched as the attack blew out its ear drums and ripped off its armor and most of its fur. One of its eyes popped and blood slid down it matted fur.

"NOW TUCKER!!" Danny called and Tucker pointed the Fenton Thermos at the Yokai; a stream of blue light erupted out and sucked the cat into the Thermos, slamming the lid on when it was inside.

"Yuck." Sam and Danny said at the same time and then looked at each other and blushed, looking away.

"You popped its eye…! That was remarkable!" Amethyst was utterly in awe of Danny's achievement, "What **was** that move!? It was fantastic!"

"My ghostly wail?" Danny asked, changing back into Danny Fenton and pushing his black hair from his blue eyes, "Well, yeah, it's pretty awesome isn't it?"

Sam shook her head and rolled her eyes, snatching the Thermos from Tucker and waving it under Danny's nose with a look on her face that clearly said: "we can be enchanted by each other's powers later but right now you have a ghost to kick back into the Ghost Zone so do it now or I'll shove this Thermos where it doesn't belong!" Danny grinned sheepishly and took the Thermos back, heading down the street with the other three in tow.

"So, what'd that cat thing want?" Tucker asked, shouldering his pack, "It looked pretty mad and, having said that, all the ghosts that come after you look mad…!"

"It wanted Amethyst, obviously." Sam replied, "I mean, why else would it come to our world. I guess the Yokai Tabby figured the best place to start would be to ask someone with ghost powers on this side."

"And when you say ask," Danny muttered darkly, "I hope you mean torture."

"Are you going to be okay?" Asked Sam, "We heard you screaming."

"The stupid thing broke my ribs…!" Danny put a hand on his side, "But Amethyst fixed them; I don't know how."

"Yokai magic." Amethyst mumbled, looking preoccupied, "Standard Yokai magic, I might add. Mending a few ribs isn't all that hard but the bigger the wound that harder it is to heal. Bleeding wounds are the worst because you have to hold back the blood and stitch up anything that got torn."

"Well, whatever, thanks!" Danny rotated his shoulder, grinning back at the fox girl, "I feel just like new!" He popped his shoulder, "Oooooohhhhhhh, and now I don't…!"

The other three laughed at him as they all continued down the sidewalk. It was only their first day together and Sam, Tucker, and Danny were already bonding with Amethyst. But there was forever the shadow of what had happened, the looming darkness of the Yokai Cats hunting down Amethyst and now Danny Phantom. The week ahead looked rough.

Next time on 'Melody in Red'

Amethyst: Oh, come on! Like it isn't obvious what's going to happen! More Yokai cats, more fighting, more winning, more school, and more of that annoying Dash kid!

Tucker: You really don't like him do you?

Amethyst: (gives him a look)

Tucker: Alright, I'll take that as a no…!

Sam: Hey guys, what's up?

Amethyst: Hey Sam…! Hm? Where's Danny?

Sam: (shrugs with a smile) Trying to escape EmptyHeart's revenge.

(cuts to Danny struggling, still upside down in the tree)

Danny: SAAAAAAM! TUUUCKEEEERRRR! ANYYYYOOONNNEEEE!

(cuts back to Sam, Tucker, and Amethyst)

Tucker: (rolling on the floor laughing)

Amethyst: I sense a storm on the horizon…!


	4. Chapter 4

Alright, this is so lame it's not even funny! Okay, it is a little funny but I'm basically just going to be throwing in chapters here to delay the inevitable end for as long as possible.

Um, have I done a disclaimer? I don't remember. Anyway, I don't own Danny, Sam, Tucker, the Ghost Zone, Jak or Maddie Fenton, Jazz, Casper High, Lancer, Dash, Quan, or anything associated with the Danny Phantom show! I think that about covers my butt for a disclaimer.

**Four: Fangs; Ouch That Hurts!**

"So, really now, you're not worried about giant ghost cats coming out of the Ghost Zone to hunt down you and Danny; and possibly us; and that could also easily level half of Amity Park if they really wanted to?" Tucker asked, not looking away from the big screen TV where he and his best friend were fighting off hordes of enemies in the Co-op Mode of 'Ratchet: Deadlocked'. The four of them were at Sam's house, hanging out just for the heck of it; not that Amethyst understood what 'hanging out' was.

"Nope." Amethyst replied, not looking away from the screen either, utterly fascinated with the concept of video games, "Yokai Tabbies act tough but are cowards by nature. I'd be worried if it was sub-clans of Yokai Dragon or Yokai Bull; they're the most powerful Clans in the Yokai Ghost Zone pits."

"Yeah, well, I still don't like how nonchalant you two are acting." Sam put in, coming down the stairs with four cans of ice cold lemonade, "Who wants lemonade?"

"Me!" Danny paused the game, dropped the controller, and snatched a can from Sam's hands, "Thanks Sam!"

Tucker grabbed one too and Sam handed the third to Amethyst. The fox girl looked at it questioningly and sniffed it. Sam half-smiled and opened the can for her.

"Hey Tuck, watch this!" Danny turned intangible and put the unopened can to his lips, the end of the can turned intangible as well and all the lemonade fell into Danny's open mouth. He turned tangible again and set the empty, unopened can down with a laugh, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, "How do you like that!?"

"That was awesome dude!" Tucker high-fived him, "Now fill it with something else and put it back in the fridge!"

"Oh, I know! Fill it with something nasty and give it to Dash!" The two boys laughed whole-heartedly, falling over into each other's laps and off the couch. Amethyst sneered at them and Sam frowned, raising an eyebrow.

"Idiots." She muttered and turned to Amethyst "So, how's school?"

"Eh…" The ghost fox shrugged, "It's weird being surrounded by so many people and not fighting them. This place is so much more different from the Ghost Zone I know that I still feel lost, no matter what you guys do for me." She stretched, setting down the half-empty lemonade, "And I need to get out of this body…! I feel so confined!"

"Well, my parents are too busy upstairs, they rarely come down here anyway, and Grandma's sleeping so…"Sam glanced at Danny who shrugged and nodded, "I guess it's okay for you to 'go fox' (Danny made a face at these words) as long as you keep it small."

Amethyst didn't respond, just clasped her hands around the gem on her neck and closed her eyes. A blinding flash of crimson light erupted and a fox the size of a Welsh Corgi was perched on the back of the couch, tail held high, tongue lolling out, violet eyes alight.

"You know, you look pretty cute when you're a tiny fox!" Tucker commented as he and Danny scrambled off the floor and back onto the couch, "Not all that formidable looking either, I might add…!"

"_I'm glad __**somebody**__ appreciates the size difference."_ Amethyst responded, stretching again and leaping onto Danny's shoulder, _"What is the point of this game video?"_

"It's video game." Danny muttered, "And will you please get your tail out of my face? I can't see the screen!"

"Ha! Danny! You got killed by a little guy! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Shut up, Tucker!"

"_Danny is dead? But he's right here? How can he be dead if he is here?"_

"Not literally, Amethyst, his character in the game's been totaled by one of the weakest enemies out there…!"

"Quit laughing Sam! Amethyst! Get…OFF!"

"_Don't you dare push me around like that again, Halfa, or I'll bite you and that's the last thing you want to happen!"_

"Why!? You got rabies!?"

"_Don't sneer at me! And no I don't!"_

"Quit fighting! It's like watching a bad sitcom!"

"_What is a sitcom?"_

They all ended up laughing, the game forgotten, Danny ranting on about how he was always getting the sour end of the deal. But he had to admit, they made a good team and for once it was nice to have someone else with ghost powers on his side, watching his back, instead of trying to shoot it. He breathed out heavily, leaning back on the couch with Tucker, Sam, and the fox-formed Amethyst, all of them wiping tears from their eyes from laughing so hard, and smiled at his friends. They all smiled back which was slightly disconcerting coming from Amethyst.

"SAMANTHA!" Sam winced as the voice of her parents echoed down that stairs, "SAMANTHA!" Sam stood and motioned for Amethyst to change back into her human form as footsteps coming towards became louder. Amethyst leapt off the couch and, as she did so, changed into her red-haired girl form. Danny and Tucker stood up as well, looking slightly nervous. Sam's parents weren't very fond of Fenton and Foley.

"Sam," Said the Goth girl's mother, "What is all that racket!?" She saw Danny and Tucker, "Oh, I see…! Well, tell your friends they need to go home! It's time for supper!"

"Whatever." Sam muttered and made a face at her mother as she went back up the stairs, "Sorry about that guys."

"No problem!" Tucker waved his hand through the air, brushing Sam's apology aside, "We get your mom, she's nuts…!"

"See ya' Sam!" Danny slung his backpack over his shoulders and gave her a high-five, "And you too Amethyst." He held out his hand and she reached out hesitantly to shake it. Danny grinned, released her hand, winked at Sam, and left with Tucker. Sam watched them go before turning to Amethyst who had a look on her face like she knew something that Sam didn't.

"What?" Sam asked, "What's that look for?"

"You like him." The fox-girl breathed, the smallest traces of a giggle in her voice, "You like the halfa…!"

"What!? No, we're just…good friends!"

"Alright then!" Amethyst skipped lightly ahead, almost gliding over the carpet, "But I can smell that you're lying…!" And she gave a hoot of laughter as Sam howled in mock-fury, chasing her up the stairs.

----

Danny waved Tucker good-bye and headed for his own house, whistling randomly, when his ghost sense went off. He froze, hands on the straps of his pack, not moving. The hairs on the back of his neck rose; someone was watching him. Not another Yokai Tabby. Not now. Not this late…! Not by himself…

"What're you doing out here on the street by yourself?" Asked a thickly accented, deep voice, "It's dangerous."

Danny spun on his heels, black hair sliding over half of his face so that he had to shove it out of the way again. His blue eyes locked upon a tall, heavily built man with greasy looking dirt brown hair that was spiked, broad sideburns, and the starting of a goatee. He wore a dark colored business suit with a cream colored under shirt and a black tie. The tie had a pin on it; a small sapphire stone ringed in gold. A hint of a smile was tracing his lips and his eyes flashed a golden-brown tinted with hints of green; they seemed to glow in the light from the street lamps.

"Who're you?" Danny interrogated, suspicious, he knew about every single person in this town and he'd never seen this guy before.

"Mr. Timothy Chris, at your service." He gave a half-bow and, as he straitened, Danny saw the flash of the letters 'T.C.' on his tie, "Now, young man, why're you out here on the street so late at night and so alone?"

There was something in his voice other than concern but Danny couldn't put his finger on it.

"I was visiting a friend and we lost track of time."

"Ah, youth…!" Timothy chuckled but it seemed false, "Such as it was, I remember a time when I would-."

"Look, man, I don't really care." Ever subtle Danny interrupted, "And you're starting to freak me out and I don't like it! If you want something just say it." The feeling in his gut was saying there was still a ghost nearby and it was only a matter of time before it showed up and then he'd **have** to get away from this old nut case!

"What's your name, boy?"

"Why do you care?"

"Curious, that's all."

"Danny Fenton."

"Well Danny…" A shadow passed over Timothy's face, "Do you like cats?"

"Wha-?" Something slammed Danny to the ground and he coughed as all the air rushed out of his lungs. Long silver claws sank into the concrete on either side of his head, hot smelly breath wafted over him, glowing golden eyes bore into his own terrified blue ones, and the street lights glittered off thick plates of steel armor. Another Yokai Tabby was pinning him to the sidewalk. Timothy Chris walked around the side of the great beast, laying a hand on its furry leg.

"You see, Danny Fenton, I pride myself on always catching my prey," The pupils of his eyes became slits and sharp, feline fangs replaced his teeth, "And I've been hunting that Yokai Fox for a while now…"

"Y-you're…beginning…t-to sound like…S-Skulker…!" Danny wheezed and the Yokai Tabby on top of him pressed down harder with its paw, making him cry out.

"And you're beginning to get on my very short nerves, halfa!" Snarled Timothy, "I **want** that Yokai girl and I **will** get her! Tell me where she is!"

"Heh…!" Danny smirked, "Like I'd ever tell you!" A flash of light and he turned into Danny Phantom, going intangible and sinking into the ground. The Yokai Tabby lifted its paw in confusion, wondering where it's the little mouse it had been playing had disappeared to. Suddenly, there was a flash of blue light and the Tabby was pulled underground. Actually, it was pulled into the Fenton Thermos, which Danny slapped the cap onto as he rose from the ground and glared at Timothy.

"Are you allies with the Yokai Tabbies!?" He snapped, green eyes blazing, "What's your problem!?"

"You are very close, Danny Fenton-or should I say **Phantom**…!" The strange man's ears melted into cat-like ones and a thin furry tail uncurled behind him, "I've decided you just might be worth my time…!"

Next time on 'Melody in Red'

Danny: Okay, I **swear** never to screw with EmptyHeart's preview studio anymore!

Amethyst: Danny, where are your cloths?

Sam and Tucker: (falling over with laughter because Danny's only in his boxers)

Danny: (blushes) EmptyHeart let me go as long as she got my cloths…

Tucker: Danny, dude, can't you just 'go ghost'?

Danny: Oh yeah! (goes ghost) Ah, I feel complete!

Sam: Well, now that that whole situation's been sorted out, can we do something productive with this time we've got after every chapter?

Tucker: Productive? Danny? Oh, please!

Danny: I resent that, Tuck…!

Amethyst: Let's play a game video!

Sam, Tucker, and Danny: (forehead slap)


	5. Chapter 5

No intro today…

**Five: No One Hears Your Screams at Night**

"Are you allies with the Yokai Tabbies!?" He snapped, green eyes blazing, "What's your problem!?"

"You are very close, Danny Fenton-or should I say **Phantom**…!" The strange man's ears melted into cat-like ones and a thin furry tail uncurled behind him, "I've decided you just might be worth my time…!"

"What!?" Danny dropped his guard for a half-second and found himself pinned against the wall of an alley, thick silver claws that had been Timothy's fingernails piercing his shoulders and the brick behind him. He cried out in pain and squirmed beneath his captor's claws, the dark material of his outfit turning even darker as his blood seeped from the wounds.

"Really Danny Phantom, I would advise you not to meddle within the affairs of the deeper Ghost Zone areas, especially areas belonging to the Yokai Ghosts…!" Timothy twisted his hands so that the silver claws ripped further into the halfa, "And I would also advise you to tell me where the Yokai Fox girl is!"

"I…won't!" Danny cried and tried to phase through the wall but there was something about the silver claws that kept him from going intangible, "Ahhhhhgggg! Let me go!"

"Not a chance, halfa, you're going to lead me right to the Yokai Fox!"

"No! I won't!" Danny fired a palm blast at Timothy and the man grunted, flying away from him. Danny collapsed onto the ground, arms sagging uselessly at his side, trying to catch his breath as pain took it away. Timothy rose to his feet, a hole blasted through the front of his jacket and the end of his tie ripped apart, his golden-green eyes blazed with fury and red energy poured off of his body like fire. Danny scooted away, willing himself to fly, and he rose slowly into the air, floating gently away from the furious Timothy.

"Danny, Danny, Danny…!" The man hissed, cat ears flat, "You can't escape us. The Yokai Tabby will continue to haunt you like the ghosts they are…!" He sneered at his own joke, reaching up a hand as though he was going to grab the white-haired boy, "We **will** find the Yokai Fox girl and we **will** kill her! And you'll be next on my hunting list...Danny Phantom!" A droplet of Danny's blood landed on Timothy's outstretched hand and the man stared at it for a while before licking it off his skin. Danny saw a shiver of delight course through him and the hungry silted eyes stared up at him.

"You'll have to wait in line, Timothy, if that is your name!" Danny called back, "There's a whole lot of other people who want to try and kill me first!" And he turned and flew away, ignoring the cold wind biting into his shoulders. There was only one place to go now. He skidded to a halt outside the Fenton home and slowly, silently flew around the building until he found Jazz's bedroom window. He phased through and landed softly on the floor. Apparently not softly enough though for it seemed Jazz had only dozed off while trying to finish a report and when she jolted upright, the flashlight spun across the room and illuminated Danny's tired features.

"Danny!" She whispered, slipping out of her bed and clicking on her light, "Oh my gosh, what happened to you!?"

"Stupid ghosts that all wait in line to take a shot at me, that's what!" Danny muttered moodily, "And pin me to walls…!"

"Hold on, I'll go get some bandages and alcohol! Stay right there!"

"Right, whatever, but I'm changing back…" Jazz just nodded and left her room. Danny sighed and reverted to his human form, wincing as he shifted his shoulders. Jazz came back and started mopping up most of the blood that was already staining Danny's white T-shirt.

"Um, Danny, this might sound weird but I need to take off your shirt…"

Danny simply nodded, letting his hair fall into his face. He bit his lip hard as his older sister carefully slipped his shirt over his head, waded it up, and set it aside.

"Well, I think you'll be okay. Whatever it was that stabbed you went all the way through your shoulders but didn't hit any bone. And they're pretty small holes too. Okay this is gonna sting!" She pressed a cotton wad soaked in alcohol over one of the stab wounds and Danny rumbled in protest, almost turning his shoulder away, "Danny! Hold **still**!"

"Darn it Jazz, it freaking hurts!" The youth hissed, eyes narrowing, "Every time I think I get a free moment another stupid ghost shows up blows it up in my face…!"

Jazz shook her head, still dabbing at the wounds on her brothers' shoulders. Danny had been in and out of rotten moods for a while now, almost mood-swinging in seemed, and more than once had he let his temper rather than his logic control his actions. And it appeared to be happening more and more often.

"You're going to have problems at school with your shoulders in such a bad condition." She told him, trying to avoid looking at his burning blue eyes that were narrowed with pain and frustration, "I mean, carrying your stuff and what not. Why don't you just stay home and I can convince Mom and Dad you're si-."

"No." Danny's voice was slightly urgent, not the low growl it had been before, "I have to help Amethyst. She's totally lost here…!"

"Amethyst? The red-haired girl with Sam?" Jazz put a finger to her chin and the wrinkled her nose at the smell of alcohol, "What's wrong with her?"

"Ummmm…" Her little brother looked slightly hesitant, biting his lip, "Well, if I tell you, you have to swear not to-."

"Danny Fenton…!" Jazz made a face at him, "I can keep your secret, **Phantom**!" He smiled sheepishly at her, "So spill the beans, what's up with this Amethyst girl?"

"For one thing she's from the Ghost Zone. Ouch!"

"Sorry!"

"Nah…and she's not like some plain old ghost either. She's called a Yokai, a demon ghost apparently, and she's a fox. There's a bunch of Yokai Tabby Cats trying to kill her because she's the last surviving member of her clan."

"Then why do you need to help her, aside from watching her back?"

"She doesn't understand the human world at all; it's completely foreign to her; and Sam, Tucker, and I are trying to help her act natural." He started to chuckle but it quickly turned into a hiss of pain as Jazz started pressing bandages onto the wounds, "She actually got Dash Baxter into trouble…!"

"Dash!? She got **Dash** into trouble!? How'd she manage that!?"

"This is the best part, Lancer **listened **to her!"

"**Lancer**!? You're not serious!?"

"I totally am! Amethyst got Dash in trouble because Lancer believed her when she said that he'd picked on her!"

"Amazing…!" Jazz smiled widely, shaking her head, "Things are really changing…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Danny asked, pushing himself to his feet, wincing at the pressure on his bandaged shoulders.

"Oh, nothing!" Jazz leapt up as well, a fake smile plastered on her face, "You should get to bed Danny, you don't want to fall asleep in class tomorrow!"

"Mh…" Danny nodded and left his sisters room, trailing down the hall to his own. Jazz starred at the closed door for a while, standing in the middle of her room, Danny's bloody T-shirt clutched in her hands. He was growing up faster than a normal fourteen year old boy should have had to…

Next time on 'Melody in Red

Sam: (dressed as Dark Riku from Kingdom Hearts) It is I…Ansem! The Seeker of Darkness!

Danny: (dressed as Sora) There's no way I'm letting you take Kairi's heart!

Tucker: (laying on the floor, dressed as Kairi) This is so wrong…!

Sam: Tucker shut up! You're heart's gone!

Tucker: (rolls his eyes and pouts, still on the floor)

Danny: What have you done with Riku!? (totally ignoring Tucker and brandishing a cardboard cutout Keyblade)

Sam: His heart belongs to the darkness! You shall not have him back!

Danny: (raises the pitch of his voice) Riiiikkkuuuuuuuuu!

Amethyst: (eating popcorn) This is quite amusing…!


	6. Chapter 6

I still haven't seen that many episodes of Danny Phantom and it's starting to annoy me how little I really know about the show. I've missed some major key episodes, I know I have, but there's no other possible way for me to watch them except online. Well, it royally sucks butt! (pouts)

Anyway, this chapter is totally pointless, basically just some random stuff I threw in there while I am trying to get over an extremely bad case of Writer's Block. I want to burn Writer's Block, I hate it so much…! Grrrrrrr! Ah, let's see, I think I have a little bit of DxS in this chapter but to a very bare minimum. Read and enjoy if you can…! (I apologize in advance for any OOC-ness that might occur.)

**Six: Doodle-Sketching Hearts**

"Hey Fen-toad!" Dash punched Danny in the shoulder, sending the boy smashing into his locker, "That was for yesterday! I got detention because of your friend!"

Danny cringed against the locker, his books scattered at his feet where he'd dropped them, his other hand resting on his aching shoulder. Dash raised an eyebrow, glancing at Quan, then gabbed the youth, spun him around, and slammed his back against the lockers. Danny gave a small cry of pain, gritting his teeth, and hunched himself over to make a smaller target.

"What's your problem Fenton!?" Dash snapped at him and Danny responded with a withering glare before rolling up the sleeves of his T-shirt to reveal his bandaged shoulders.

"Lucky you," He said in a low voice to Dash, pushing his sleeve back down, "You didn't make them start bleeding again…!" And he slowly crouched down and gingerly picked his books up, holding them lightly in his arms, "Now leave me alone!"

"What happened to your shoulders?" Quan asked before Dash could sush him and walk off like he didn't care.

"I got attacked by a drunkard." Danny said flatly, back to the two other boys, and stalked off down the hall to where Sam and Tucker stood waiting for him with Amethyst. The Yokai Fox girl was glowering at Danny like he'd done something terrible.

"Wow, I didn't know we had drunkards!" Dash muttered to Quan as the two walked off togther. Quan shrugged.

"You alright Danny?" Sam and Tucker said simultaneously and Danny shot them a look, "Sorry, standard question…!"

"Danny…" The halfa turned to Amethyst who looked ready to bite his head off, "Why do you smell like Yokai Tabby and blood!?"

This question caught Danny by surprise and he blinked at her, almost forgetting what a Yokai Tabby was. Then he half-smiled and shrugged, wincing when he did.

"I was attacked by another Yokai Tabby last night," Then he recalled something else, "And a weirdo named Timothy Chris. I don't know, he was really strange…"

"Timothy Chris?" The other three said at the same time and Sam continued, "Well, what'd he look like?"

"Uh, tallish with a really heavy looking build and…greasy-looking brown hair with humungous sideburns, and a dark suit with a black tie and a little pin thingy…a sapphire I think. And when he got all hissy at me, he got cat ears and a tail. It was freaky. He pinned me to a wall with his claws…!" Danny pointed to his shoulders, "Freaking hurt like nothing else! And he said he was going to hunt Amethyst down and kill her…!"

"He's not a man." Amethyst's hard voice made them all turn, "His name's not even Timothy Chris. It's Trice and he's the Yokai Ghost Tabby Leader!"

"Tabby…" Danny muttered, "Tabby…Cat…Tabby Cat! He had the letters 'T.C.' embossed into his tie!" He smacked his forehead with a free hand, flinching again, "Why didn't I put that together! Man, I'm such an idiot sometimes!"

"Well, we know what he looks like so we can avoid him." Sam responded as the bell rang, "But for now, let's worry about class. Ghosts come after school." And the four all dashed to their first hour classes with the other students, leaving the halls empty.

----

"Mr. Fenton? Mr. Fenton…! **Mr. Fenton**!" The teacher slapped a hand on Danny's desk and he jolted, cringing as he shifted his injured shoulders too quickly, "Just **what** do you think you're doing!?"

"Huh? I, uh, I was, uh…" Danny looked down at his sheet of paper. It was blank, "I was, uh, trying to, uh…"

"You looked like you were sleeping, Mr. Fenton!" The teacher snapped, "Now, if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you would do your class work!" And she stomped away. Danny stuck his tongue out childishly at her retreating back and went back to starring at the blank piece of paper before him, the pencil held loosely in his hands. Art class sucked for the youth.

"Ahhhg!" He dropped his head onto his desk, "I can't do this…!"

"What's wrong with you?" Asked a familiar voice and Danny turned his head with it still lying on the desk to see Amethyst's brilliant violet eyes starring at him. He sat up, pushing a mop of black hair from his face.

"I can't draw." He muttered angrily, "And the only reason I'm in this stupid class is because I need the credits. Otherwise, I'd be doing something else!"

"Credits?" Amethyst still didn't understand the school system, no matter how many times Sam went over it, it just didn't make since to her, "Why can't you draw?"

"I just suck, okay!" Danny snapped at her, irritable about the way his day had been going, his throbbing shoulders not making it any better, "And today sucks too…!"

He looked back and her and noticed her angry expression. Amethyst didn't take lightly to people yelling at her or bossing her around; it must have had something to do with her being the daughter of the Yokai Ghost Clan Leader.

"Well, can **you** draw!?" Just because she was ticked at him didn't mean he wasn't going to still vent, "Come on, let's see it fox-girl, what've you got?"

"More than you!" She replied in a clipped voice and whipped her paper out and onto his desk; the chatter going on around the room covering their conversation, "Well?"

Danny didn't know whether to be jealous or impressed or both. Amethyst wasn't an **amazing** artist or anything but she was good one. The youth pushed her drawing aside, picked up his pencil, and held it, hovering just above the paper, waiting for an inspiration but nothing was coming. He drew a random line, the ghost-fox still peering over his shoulder, erased it, drew the same line, erased it again, and then drew it again. He thought he heard Amethyst laugh at him.

"Go draw something else…!" He murmured under his breath at her, "Like, a plan on how we're going to get Trice back in the Ghost Zone and get him to **stay** there!"

She lost all amusement and moved away, back to her own desk, and sat there, not moving, arms folded over her chest. She looked like she was pouting but Danny was too distracted to care. He was more worried about Sam. If Trice wanted Amethyst and Amethyst was staying at Sam's house, wouldn't that put Sam in twice as much danger as the rest of them even though all of them had Amethyst's sent on them? He looked back down at his paper and started when he noticed that he'd been drawing without really paying attention to **what** he'd been drawing. It was a very rough sketch of someone, more like a silhouette than anything else, standing in empty space, their hands held close to their face. Danny starred at it for a while and then started drawing again.

Amethyst watched the halfa out of the corner of her eye, following his pencil movements across the paper. He was worried; probably about getting attacked. His shoulders stiffened every so often and she knew that he was hurting but if she was going to heal him, it would have to be somewhere without a lot of people; Sam had told her no ghost powers in public. The fox girl looked back at her own drawing. The shadows of a series of deep caverns stood out at her from the paper, profiles of foxes etched into the shadows. That had been her home; nearly endless tunnels carved into the rock going on for miles. Her whole Clan had been in there when they'd been attacked…and completely destroyed. A sharp pain hit her in the chest and she felt her eyes burn; she was all alone and not even a stupid halfa could understand just how much it was hurting her.

"Finished!" Danny slapped his pencil on the desk and sat back with a smirk of triumph but when Amethyst leaned over to look at his drawing, he whisked it away and into his binder, his cheeks pink. She glared at him and he made a face at her. The bell rang.

----

"Hey Sam, um, can I talk to you alone a minute?" Tucker and Amethyst looked first at each other and then at Danny and Sam, "Really it'll just be a minute."

"Fine." Sam motioned for him to follow her into her house, leaving the other two outside on the sidewalk, one completely confused and the other grinning as he thought about what it was Danny might want to talk to Sam about.

"What is it, Danny?" The Goth girl dropped her bag into an arm chair and turned to face the blue-eyed boy who was nervously digging through his binder.

"Well, see, we had to draw something in Art today, and, well," He tugged a piece of paper out, gazing at it for a moment, and then looked back up at her, "I don't want it and I think it sort of sucks but…you know, if you want it…" He held the drawing out to her and Sam rolled her eyes, taking it from his. She couldn't stop herself from raising her eyebrows, a little amazed.

Danny could never draw very well; he was okay at best; but this was probably the best thing she'd ever seen from him. The silhouette of someone standing on a rooftop overlooking a (rather shakily drawn and tilted) city, something glowing in the hands they held close to their face. The shading was a little iffy and the skyline seemed a little off but Sam didn't mind. It was from Danny. To her. She looked up at him and he grinned apprehensively.

"It's okay," She said, trying to keep her voice flat, "I'll hang it up somewhere. See you later Danny." She waved her hand, dismissing him. He bolted out of the house, face red. When she was in her room and sure he was gone and was also sure that Amethyst was in her own room, Sam took a black pushpin from a draw at her desk and pinned the drawing up right above her computer; a place reserved for the things she held most dear. It stood out amongst the photos of the trio that littered that area. Sam smiled to herself. Danny was such an idiot sometimes but there were those other times when…

Her moment was shattered when Amethyst shouted her name all the way down the hall. The Goth girl rolled her eyes and left her bedroom, Amethyst calling out her name and saying something about Geo-nemerty. Geometry. Sam walked into the fox-girl's room and shoved her out of the way to make room on the bed for herself. Then she snatched up Amethyst's pencil and stared pointing out how to do the problems. Amethyst snatched her pencil back and broke it in half on accident. Sam sighed and reached into her back pocket for the spare she kept there. It was going to be a long night.

Next time on 'Melody in Red'

Danny: (still dressed as Sora) I'm going to stab myself with the Dark Keyblade! Then Kairi's heart will come back and everything will be okay again! (pretends to stab himself with a cardboard cutout Dark Keyblade and fall over)

Tucker: (still dressed as Kairi, gets up and runs over to Danny who turns himself invisible) Oh no! Sora! Why did you do it!?

Sam: (still dressed as Dark Riku, falls over with laughter) Oh my gosh! I can't stand this anymore! I'm gonna die of laughter!

Danny: (reappears by Sam also laughing) I think this might be a little too crazy even for 'Mirror Phantom'!

Amethyst: I do not understand what is so funny.

Tucker: I'm going to go find some pants…!

Danny and Sam: (hanging off of each other in tears of laughter)


	7. Chapter 7

Um, okay, I'm sorry for being so lazy with the last chapter but, like I said, Writer's Block. Murder on me. Want to kill it. Anyway, I think we can finally get back to the **real** story line now without any further distractions. Maybe…

**Seven: Fight after Fight**

Danny Fenton hadn't slept well in at least four days. Tucker watched his best friend massaging his forehead from across the table. The four kids were all sitting at a picnic table in the park, just generally hanging out for the weekend. But still, the presence of Trice and his fellow Yokai Tabby loomed over them like a dark shadow. Even this sunny afternoon couldn't get Amethyst to relax or Danny to stay awake. The boy kept nodding off randomly, dark circles forming lightly under his eyes. His shoulders were healed, courtesy of Amethyst, but even her healing abilities couldn't erase weariness.

"I hate to say this guys but all of us just starring at each other really isn't what I'd like to call a good time." Tucker stated, pushing his glasses farther up his nose, "I mean, we could at least **do** something! Right Danny? Danny? Danny!"

Danny, startled from his snooze, jolted upright, lost his perch on the park bench, and fell off into onto the grass where he lay for a while starring at the clear blue sky. Then he stood up with a sigh and brushed himself off, looking from one face to another. Sam looked bored, Tucker looked annoyed, and Amethyst looked locked in some sort of morbid daydream, her mouth slightly open and he violet eyes glazed.

"Alright then, Tuck, what do you suggest we d-oh, **come on**!" A wisp of blue and Danny flung his hands into the air, exasperated, "Can I have one moment of peace, please!?"

"Danny, Danny, Danny." It was that accented voice that sent chills up Danny's spine and made Amethyst sit up straight and look around, "Peace is something you have to earn and you, dear boy, are far from earning such a prize…!"

Trice stepped out from the trees, smiling hungrily at Danny. Amethyst, Sam, and Tucker all leapt to their feet; Sam pulling out the Fenton Thermos from her bag. Trice laughed at the sight, showing sharply pointed teeth.

"Oh please! Do you really think that will work on me while I'm in this state!?" He waved a hand carelessly at his body, "Think again, children!"

"We know what you are!" Sam snapped, pointing the Thermos at him, the cap still on, "And we know someone who can beat you!"

"You mean the young Fenton boy? Or should I say…Phantom?" Trice sneered at Danny as Sam, Tucker, and Amethyst all gasped and looked at their other friend, "Yes, I know your friends' most precious secret…! And I also know that you've been keeping that Yokai Fox girl very…very…close." His golden-green eyes flashed and locked with Amethyst's, "Well, what're you waiting for? I killed your family…your clan…your father…come and get me!"

Amethyst growled, fox ears springing up and flattening in rage against her still human skull, a fluffy red fox tail bristling up to twice its normal size, her pupils became slits, and, fangs bared, she extended a clawed hand out and swiped at the air. Trice laughed again but was distracted by a flash of light. Danny Phantom slammed into him and pinned him to the ground, perched atop his chest, knees locking his arms down, and punched the Yokai Ghost Tabby in the face.

"SHUT UP!" Danny shouted, punching him again, and Amethyst reverted, eyes wide with shock, "JUST SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH!" Tucker stepped backwards unconsciously, "YOU'RE REALLY STARTING TO MAKE ME ANGRY!" Sam dropped the Thermos onto the grass, disbelief written all over her face, "ALL YOU DO IS TALK!! YOU DON'T EVER **FIGHT**! YOU HAVE YOUR LITTLE SLAVES TO DO THAT FOR YOU! YOU LOW LIFE!"

"Ah, but Danny," Trice snickered, not bothering to fight back, ignoring the blood flowing from his split lip and nose, "You aren't that different than me…!" He turned his gaze to Danny's friends and Danny's green eyes, now blazing so brightly they were almost white, starred at them too, barely comprehending what he saw he was so rage flooded, "You fight, yes, but without your friends, you are nothing. Without your powers, you are nothing." He looked back at the halfa boy, "You only fight for yourself and those who follow you! Everyone else is below you and doesn't deserve your salvation!"

"SHUT YOU'RE MOUTH!" Danny raised a fist glowing with green energy, "DON'T YOU EVER COMPARE ME OR MY FRIENDS WITH YOU AND YOUR STUPID CLAN! EVER! YOU HEAR ME!? **EVER**!!"

"Danny stop it!" Sam grabbed his wrist, stopping him from hitting Trice who was smiling, "Just…stop it! This is what he wants! He **wants** you to hit him when you're angry! You're doing exactly what he wants!"

Trice laughed, went intangible, and disappeared into the ground. Danny sat in the dirt on his knees, seething, pale face blotched with red, green lost to white in his angered eyes, shaking with rage, Sam still holding onto his wrist, starring at the spot where Trice had disappeared beneath him. After a moment or two, his breathing slowed down and he changed back into his black-haired self.

"You can let go now Sam…" He muttered and she quickly dropped his wrist. Danny brought his hands up to his face, sitting back in the grass, covering his eyes, hunched over on the ground.

"Hey, dude, you alright?" Tucker asked tentatively, crouching down beside his best friend, "You're as white as a…well…ghost." He half-smiled, "Heh, bad analogy…"

Amethyst stayed back on the other side of the table, watching the three friends, eyes distant. Then she shook herself and walked over to stand by Sam.

"Get up, halfa…!" She said firmly, "On your feet! This isn't a pity party!"

"Quiet…" Danny growled but stood up and brushed the dirt off his jeans, "What was that…?" He asked quietly, "What did he do?"

"Trice has that sort of effect on ghosts," Amethyst answered, her voice strained, "He can make them angry and lose their sense judgment with just a few simple words. That's what makes him all the more dangerous. But I don't know if that's his power or if that's just the way he is. I can't answer that one…" She shook her head, long red hair waving.

"But Danny's only half ghost." Tucker said, his hand on his best friend's shoulder, "It shouldn't affect him like it does you!"

"It seems he knows how to push Danny's buttons better than Dash does…!" Sam chuckled, "And I didn't mean that to sound like a good thing!"

"_How about I push some more buttons!"_ A voice rang out, _"Like push your eyeballs into the backs of your heads!"_ A Yokai Tabby dropped out of the sky, armor gleaming, tail lashing, eyes glinting, _"Stupid fools! You have no where to run to!"_

Danny smirked,

"I don't need anywhere to run to!" He shouted, taking stance, "I'm just going to GO GHOST!" A flash of light and from the light a beam of green energy erupted, smashing into the Tabby's paw.

"_Well, that tickled!"_ It bared its fangs, crouched, and jumped…right over Danny! The Yokai Ghost slammed Amethyst to the ground and brought its mouth close to her face, letting a thin string on saliva trail from its jaws and dangle inches from his cheek. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"Leave her ALONE!" Danny grabbed the Yokai's tail and tugged at it…hard. The Tabby yowled and wheeled around, sending Danny flying into a tree. He slid to the ground with a groan, a shower of green leaves tumbling after him.

"_Halfa!"_ The giant cat spat, _"I'll eat you first…and then the Yokai Fox…and then your friends…!"_ It laughed and stalked towards the moaning white-haired boy. Sam snatched up the Fenton Thermos from the ground, yanked off the cap, and pointed it at the Tabby.

"Sam, look out!" Tucker tackled Sam just as another Yokai Tabby flew down from the sky and took a swipe at her. It snarled as it missed its target and skidded around in mid-air to find it.

"We have to get out of here!" Amethyst shouted, "We could barely fight one, let alone two! Hey! Halfa! Get up!" But Danny was only semi-conscious, unaware of the fact that he was about to be swallowed up by a giant ghost cat, "HALFA! HALFA!"

"**DANNY**!!" Sam screamed at the top of her voice. At first there was no response but then the boy's ghostly wail shattered through the air, making them all clap their hands over their ears and drop to the ground. The Yokai Tabby that had been about to eat Danny dissolved in a screech of terror and the other reeled head-over-heels through the air, its ears bleeding.

"Let's go!" Danny hauled Sam to her feet and shot off into the air followed by a slightly translucent Amethyst carrying Tucker. By the time the second Tabby recovered from Danny's attack, the four of them were long gone.

Whew…!" Danny wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead as he reverted and they all landed behind the Nasty Burger, "That was a really close one! Thanks for the wake up call Sam…!"

Sam's cheeks turned pink but she said it was nothing. Amethyst dropped Tucker on the pavement and became solid again. Tucker gave her dirty look as he stood and brushed himself off.

"So, now that we know that Trice knows about Danny and that he's going to be sending twice as many Yokai Tabbies after us than usual…what do we do?" Sam muttered, leading the group around to the front of the fast food place, "I mean, there's plenty of things we **could** do but they're not that logical."

"Like stealing a nuke and bombing the whole lot of them while they're sitting in the Ghost Zone." Danny chortled as they walked across the street.

"Yeah, like that." Sam replied.

"We could, instead, get a bazooka." Tucker offered and Sam and Danny laughed. Amethyst just stared blankly at them.

"I fail to see what's so amusing…!" She growled in a low voice, "This is a completely serious matter! Trice is more dangerous than you three are giving him credit for! You need to focus on the battle!"

"'Reality bites with a variety of sizes of teeth.'" Danny said, holding his finger in the air like some sort of professor giving a lecture, "Ah…" He paused, blinking, scratching his chin, "I don't remember who said that…Tony Something-or-other…" He shook his head and started walking again, "Anyway, my point is, crap hits the fan 24/7 and most of the time it's little bits of crap that you can ignore but sometimes it's a ton of crap that just piles down on you and drags you down. So you know what you do to get that crap off you!?"

"Find a shovel." Tucker whispered to Sam who suppressed a laugh.

"Simply laugh it off!" Danny ignored the jibe his friend had made and flung his arms skyward, grinning at Amethyst, "How do you think I've kept myself from going emo?"

Amethyst starred at him for a while, the four of them standing outside a small shop.

"What…is emo?" She finally asked and the other three laughed at her.

It was a warm weekend day with a clear blue sky. Everything was almost perfect in Amity Park. Very close to perfect…but not exactly.

Next time on 'Melody in Red'

Amethyst: Why don't we just kill Trice next time he shows up? It would make everything so much easier!

Sam: We don't **kill** Amethyst, we capture and return.

Danny: Besides, how can you kill something that's already dead? That doesn't make sense at all!

Amethyst: (grumbles incoherently)

Tucker: And a Merry Christmas to you too!

Sam: Tucker, I swear, if you pull out that mistletoe hat thing again I'll punch you in the face.

Danny: (laughs at Tucker's expression) At least he's got pants on now!

Amethyst: What is mistletoe? And Christmas? What is Christmas?

Sam, Danny, and Tucker: I can't believe her…!


	8. Chapter 8

I just **had** to do a scene with Clockwork. He's so cool! I mean, I don't think of him as a good or bad guy, I think he's neutral, not really on anyone's side but then I haven't seen that much DP yet so I can't really say that much. But that doesn't stop me from thinking he's awesome! So, here I present a chapter dedicated to Clockwork and maybe even hints of something to come in the future…!

_(Eh, on a separate note, the Specter Chains are something I cam up with off the top of my head. Don't take any note of them. Like I've said before and will say a million times, I haven't seen the much DP…please no flames…)_

**Eight: Whispers of Time**

Clockwork had been keeping an eye on young Danny Fenton since the incident concerning the boy's future. But not **too** close of an eye, the guy did have his own schedule to attend to. It wasn't until he heard about the rumble in the Yokai Ghost pits that he decided to check up on the halfa. And, lo and behold, there he was with the last remaining Yokai Ghost Fox in existence; leave it to Danny to get himself into neck-deep trouble. No doubt the Observers weren't too happy about it but then…Clockwork never did care for them anyways.

"Danny Fenton," He murmured to himself, watching the boy laugh as he walked down the sidewalk with Sam, Tucker, and the Yokai Fox Amethyst, "How do you always get tangled up with these things?" He waved a hand over the scene so that it rippled and changed, "It would have been better if you had never met her…"

He watched the new scene, what would happen a year later, his eyes narrowed as he gazed at Danny's tear-stained features. The scene rippled again and blood splattered everywhere only to shift to Danny standing in front of the open Ghost Zone portal, still human, gazing into it, a bloodied knife in his hands. Green light illuminated his face; it was pale, deathly so, his eyes empty, his skin drawn, dark bags under his eyes, and he was shaking slightly. He whispered something. Clockwork shook his head and changed the scene back to present day; Danny sitting with his three companions at a library table, not really doing anything in particular, just hanging out and laughing at something Tucker had said. All of that would disappear very soon.

Clockwork didn't know why he cared so much about what happened to the halfa. For him, time was an endless existence that he controlled, life was a play that he could stop and rewind and fast forward at will, and people were merely the actors who did what they did with no other thought of it. His fingers tightened on his staff and he traced the out line of Danny's gleeful face with one finger, eyes lost in thought. Danny's destiny was so twisted and fading in and out of darkness so much so that even the great Clockwork wasn't sure that what he'd just seen was what was going to pass in one year. Maybe something would happen. Maybe he would have to interfere again. Just maybe.

"Clockwork…" The time controller rolled his eyes towards the ceiling and turned around to face the two Observers that had entered his lair, "We know of the Yokai Ghost Fox's escape into the human realm and her contact with Danny Fenton. We also know that this could be another path that leads to his becoming evil."

"Why are you here?" Clockwork growled, leering at them, the effect suddenly lost as his form changed into that of a toddlers, "Danny Fenton was left to my care." His form changed again, "You need not be bothered with him anymore."

"If he becomes Phantom, Clockwork, we **all** will be bothered…!" One Observer stated, pointing at Clockwork, "And it will be you to blame…!"

"Blame me if you will." Clockwork spat, turning away, "But right now, he's enjoying himself and I will let him continue to do so. Besides," He glanced back over his shoulder at the two Observers, nearly sneering at them, "Who says he's going to go evil? The future isn't set in stone."

The Observers shared a look and left. Clockwork was being as impossible as ever and they weren't about to waste their time fighting with him to get their point across. Clockwork sighed, leaning heavily on his staff, training his glowing orbs upon Danny's glittering blue ones. The boy was completely unawares that he was going to set in motion events that could destroy the human race. And he could stop that destruction…but at a price. There was always a price, as Clockwork had learned throughout the years, always a price for every action. He recalled the scene he had witnessed just last night…

…"_No…No…Stop it…" Danny Fenton twisted and turned beneath his sheets, brow furrowed by some disturbing dream he was having, "No…! Sam…? Tucker…? Anyone…? No! No, I didn't! Stop it! NO!" He kicked out at something in what Clockwork now assumed was a nightmare, "I didn't do it! Let me go! No! No, please, anything but that! Don't do it to me! Please! No!"_

_Clockwork leaned forward and then, making a snap decision, opened up a window that showed what it was that was making the boy cry out in his sleep. It was disturbing._

_Danny Phantom was being dragged through piles of rubble by his parents, bloodied bodies all over, Amity Park destroyed. Tears and blood coated him as he struggled in their grasp, unable to get away due to the Specter Chains clamped on his wrists. _

"_I didn't do it!" He was crying, trying to get away but to little avail, "It wasn't me! Sam! Tucker! Help me! Tell them it wasn't me! Tell them it wasn't me!"_

"_They're dead, stupid boy!" Vlad suddenly loomed up, standing beside a metal pole where a handful of people waited with glowing green chains, "__**You**__ killed them!"_

"_No I didn't!" Danny sobbed as his parents threw him against the pole and let the people tie him there; his mother was crying sorrow and rage and his father looked ready to kill, "I didn't! Please! Stop it! Don't do this to me! Not to me! No! No, no, no!" _

"_I can't believe you'd do this Danny…!" Jazz stood before him, bloodied, sobbing, "My little brother…I can't believe you'd betray us all…! Why, Danny, why!?"_

"_It wasn't me!" Danny screamed, "It was Trice! It was all Trice! I didn't do it! It wasn't me! Please! Jazz! Don't let them do this to me! Please!"_

"_Trice was dead when we found you!" Vlad snarled at him, pointing a strange looking gun at the boy's chest, "All we saw was you, red-eyed and bloodied, with bodies and destruction all around you…!"_

"_I didn't do it! Not on purpose!" Danny leaned away from the gun which was charging an unearthly white blast, "Please, Vlad, don't do this to me! ANYTHING BUT THIS!"_

"_You don't have the heart to control those powers, Daniel…!" Vlad hissed, jabbing the weapon into Danny's chest, "And you __**let**__ Trice control your anger! This __**is **__ your fault!" _

_And the white light blasted out, ripping out Danny Phantom, destroying the ghost powers that had made Danny so unique. Danny screamed in agony…_

_And awoke screaming in fear, tears running down his face. He hoped it wasn't true. He kept repeating to himself that it had only been a dream and that it wasn't going to happen. Just a nightmare. But Clockwork knew what Danny was thinking; what if Trice does make me so angry that I snap like I almost did the other day. But what if this time, there's no one around to stop me? What if everything I hold dear is destroyed…and it's all my fault…!?..._

Clockwork turned his gaze back to the four kids, smirking at their smiling faces. Two human kids, a halfa who didn't know the extent of his powers, and an extremely young Yokai Fox who understood very little about the human world. What an odd group. And to imagine, if Danny had only been one hour later getting home from school, that none of this would have happened. Amethyst's father would have tried to escape with his daughter only to have them both be killed by the Yokai Tabby that had been chasing them. Then the Tabbies would have stayed in the Ghost Zone and Clockwork wouldn't have to worry about Danny going evil again. Of course, that worry wasn't until later. When something bigger than the Yokai Ghost Tabbies reared its head.

"I can only influence you so far, Danny Fenton," He muttered, "I'm not about to ruin the fabric of reality for the likes of an ignorant boy like you…!"

And he meant every word of it.

Next time on 'Melody in Red'

Amethyst: What **is** this!? It smells like it's drowned in something!

Sam: They're drowned in grease, Amethyst, and they're called French fries.

Danny: Hey, Sam, you know how we all had French Toast this morning?

Tucker: (snickers)

Sam: Yeah, so what?

Amethyst: (watching with a worried expression on her face)

Danny: Well, French Toast is soaked in egg, you know…!

Sam: You're point Danny?

Danny: Eggs are considered a meat product!

Tucker: (laughs so hard he sprays soda out his nose)

Sam: DANNY FENTON I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!! (chases after him with a spork)

Amethyst: (watches with interest)

EmptyHeart: I had eggs this morning with toasted beer bread. And for the longest time I thought eggs were a vegetable or something so I'm making fun of myself with this…!


	9. Chapter 9

And now come a series of pointless chapters as we try to defy the inevitable. Yep…I'm that lame… This one's kind of short but oh well, I can't think of a lot of stuff right now.

**Nine: Death to You, Boy!**

"_In the moving crowd, of a faceless town, I need to feel the touch of a friend. In the countryside, I wander far and wide, the isolation gets me again."_

"Come on! Do you **have** to watch all the stupid programs!?" Tucker whined, spinning around in his chair, so he could glare at Amethyst who was starring intently at the television screen in his room, "I mean, at least switch it to Comedy Central or something a little less **foreign**!"

"What's wrong with foreign TV shows, Tuck?" Sam gave him an evil smile, "A lot of the technology you're using is foreign…!"

Tucker sputtered in his seat, finally threw his hands into the air, and faced his computer again, slapping headphones on and turning up the music so he couldn't hear the program.

"What's wrong with Yu Yu Hakusho?" Danny wondered aloud, "It's awesome!"

"_I don't know where to go when I feel like crying! Oh my, it's time to open myself up! Do something new! I want to stop and grow up a bit!"_

"What's wrong with 'Smile Bomb'?" Sam muttered, referring to the theme song.

"Other than it's crazily happy for a **Goth**!" He raised his eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes, drawing her knees up to her chin and facing the TV again in a huff. Amethyst hadn't said a word, to intent upon the screen.

"_And suddenly my power and confidence comes swelling up, magically erupts! And it's all because the kindness that feel from people I don't even know!"_

"FOX!" Amethyst screeched as Kurama flashed across the screen, making them all jump. Then she settled back to starring at the TV like nothing had ever happened. She'd done that every single time Kurama or anything relating to a fox had shown up. It made Danny laugh.

Sam rolled her eyes, pushing her hair from her face, it being down from her usual style, and hid a grin in her arms. The Yokai Fox girl was hilarious and annoying at the same time.

"_And suddenly my intuition and my wisdom go! And then I know, that most of all I sense compassions real from the strangers wherever I go! Thank you for waking me up!"_

"You know, I've been wondering about something…" Danny muttered aloud, noting that the episode was a re-run, "That one time we were fighting that one Yokai Tabby," He got glares from Amethyst and Sam (Tucker still had his head in his computer), "Okay, okay, well, the thing was about to bite me and Amethyst, you freaked out like it was pointing a gun to my head. What was that about?"

Amethyst bit her lip and looked away, turning back to the TV screen. Sam picked the remote up and turned the TV off. The ghost fox snarled at her and then subsided, pouting in the middle of the couch because she didn't know how to work the remote or the television. After a moment of silence, she realized she wasn't going to get what she wanted and sighed.

"Every human has a Yokai Ghost buried deep inside them because every human has some sort of inner guardian or something like that." She wasn't looking at anyone but rather was starring blankly at the carpet but even Tucker had removed his headphones to hear what was going on, "Humans don't have sub-clan ghosts, though, only the main twelve and a regular Yokai Ghost can tap that power, bringing it out in the human…by biting them."

"Ah, I see why you didn't want the Tabby biting Danny." Tucker nodded and then paused, "But hey, wouldn't having a Yokai power make him stronger?"

"Yeah, I mean, having the power of one of the twelve Zodiac animals at your finger tips…sounds pretty cool to me!" Sam said and Danny nodded enthusiastically, wondering if he could get Amethyst annoyed enough to bite him.

But the Yokai Fox shook her head,

"Yokai power isn't just something you get." Her violet eyes locked with Danny's blue ones and he realized how serious she was being, "You have to **control** it. Otherwise it will control you. A Yokai Ghost power is corruptive on a human. My father told me of a case where the human was completely taken over by the Yokai Ghost and never became human again…"

"What a horrible fate…" Danny whispered and then a grin split his features, "Like it could ever happen to me! Heh," He puffed himself up, "I bet I'd be a Dragon!"

"I highly doubt that." Amethyst snickered as Sam poked Danny in the side, making the boy deflate and giggle, "Only pure-hearted beings have a Yokai Dragon inside them. And from what I've seen, Danny Fenton, you don't fit that description!"

"You'd be a Rat, Danny!" Tucker laughed from his chair, spinning it around in circles, "And I'd be the handsome Tiger!" He pretended to preen himself, much to the others' amusement.

"So that would leave me with the Snake then." Sam grinned wickedly, leering over Danny who'd fallen to the floor, the Goth girl perched on top of him, "Prepare to suffer!" And she started tickling him.

"Ahahahahaha! No! Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Danny rolled underneath Sam, pushing her away, laughing, "Fine, fine, fine! I'm the Bull! I'm the Bull!"

"Winner: Sam Manson." Sam held her hands in the air, still sitting on top of the Fenton boy, "By forfeit!" And she poked Danny's nose before tickling him again. Danny squealed with laughter, twisting around like a worm on a hook, tears forming at the edges of his eyes, pushing at Sam's questing fingers, and screaming mercy at the top of his voice.

Amethyst and Tucker roared with mirth, the Yokai Fox hanging off the arm of the couch, shaking, and Tucker slid half-way off his chair, clutching his side, barely breathing he was laughing so hard. Danny finally managed to squirm his way out from underneath Sam and dash around to the other side of the couch, making faces at her, only to be tackled by Amethyst who then leapt away and bounced across the room to Tucker who found himself pinned to the floor by the girl. He chuckled at her and shoved her off and the two got into a squabble which Danny and Sam quickly joined in. A half hour later, the four of them sat panting on the floor, grins splitting their features, still letting out the occasional breathless giggle of delight.

"_Enjoying yourselves?"_ It was a whisper on a breeze through the open window of Tucker's room, lightly ruffling the curtains but they all froze and shared a horrified look; Trice was watching them, _"I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?"_

"Trice…" Danny said warningly as he got slowly to his feet, eyes scanning the room angrily, "Where are you? What do you want?"

"_I thought we'd established that?"_ Trice's whisper of a voice ruffled the curtains again and Danny stuck his head out the window looking around for the bad cat, _"I want the Yokai Fox girl. Dead. And then your friends. Dead. And then your family. Dead. And then, maybe, I'll kill you. If I'm feeling merciful."_

"Where are you, you stinking cat!?" Snarled Amethyst, a slight red glow lighting up her figure, the gem on her neck glowing, "Where are you hiding!?"

"_Doesn't matter,"_ Trice chuckled as Danny withdrew his head back into the room and starred around, looking more like he was pouting than he was angry, _"I'm going to play with you some more. A ball of string, no? Have fun with my little friends."_

They waited in silence for a moment and then Danny turned to Sam.

"You heard that, right?"

"The freaky voice-on-the-wind-thing? Yeah."

"Good." He turned to Tucker, "You heard it too, right?"

"Oh yeah!" The techie adjusted his glasses, looking about ready to wet himself, "Scary!"

"Okay, then I'm not crazy." Danny muttered, running his hands through his black hair, "But how the heck did he do that!?" He looked at Amethyst but she shook her head, "Aw, man, we're totally screwed."

"I think screwed is an understatement, Danny." Sam muttered, brushing her hair with her fingers, "We've been on his hit list from the beginning and the only thing that's holding him back now is because he wants to play."

"Play, play, play…!" Tucker whined, "Why do they always have to **play**!?"

"If Trice wants to play…" Amethyst's voice was just above a whisper, fox ears pinned back, tail bristling, her rage taking control of her, "Then let's play back…!"

Danny grinned darkly, his eyes flashing briefly to green.

"I think I like the sound of that…"

Next Time on 'Melody in Red'

Danny: (singing a random tune) Mirror Phantom! Rules the world! Yeah! Mirror Phantom! Gonna make your hair curl!

Sam: That has got to be the most horrible thing I've ever heard.

Danny: Yeah, you got anything better?

Tucker: I do! I do!

Sam and Danny: What?

Tucker: Ahem! "The Lombax shall die, A fiery horrible death, Cupcakes are yummy."

Amethyst: What is a cupcake?

EmptyHeart: I apologize for that. I've been playing 'Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction' and I'd almost forgotten how much I love Ratchet and Clank. And that stupid little haiku is from Emperor Tachyon or however the heck you spell his name.


	10. Chapter 10

Aw, screw the lame, in between chapters! I'm just going to skip right to the good stuff so I can get this annoying thing out of the way and start on the awesomely cool sequel! Yes! Um, short chapter because I need to build suspense.

**Ten: Laughing (about terror)**

"This is getting out of hand." Amethyst growled, standing distractedly on the side walk outside the Fenton household while Danny and Sam sat on the bottom step and Tucker sat a few steps above them, "People are going to get hurt soon. Or killed. I will not have that."

The Yokai Fox Girl had become attached to Amity Park over the past two weeks since Trice's warning. There had been too many Yokai Tabbies popping up for anyone's comfort but luckily Danny and Amethyst had been able to interfere in time before anyone could get seriously hurt; most of it was scraps and bruises from trying to get away. Still, it was only a matter or time. And time had never been on Danny Fenton's side.

"Don't worry, Amethyst," Sam said reassuringly, looking up from her book, "Trice can't hide forever and there's no way he's going to keep letting those minions do the work for him."

"How can you be sure about that?" Danny asked, starring off into the fading blue sky, "I mean, he's toying with us, right? So what's to stop him from wearing us out?"

"Because," Tucker responded before Sam could get a word in, "He's nuts. There's no way he's going to just let his little toys do all the work for him. When he gets antsy he's going to get off his furry butt and come find **us**. He's not stupid, just crazy."

"Hmmm…" Danny sighed, unease creasing his forehead, "I don't like the way this is going. I get the feeling something terrible is going to happen and there's nothing I can do to stop it…"

"Emo." Sam breathed and then laughed as the black haired boy shot her a glare. Tucker chuckled and then quickly straightened his features out. Barely.

"There's something foul hanging in the air this twilight." Amethyst whispered, her attention turned towards the skyline, "I can sense it too."

Tucker looked worriedly up into the sky as though expecting another Yokai Tabby to sweep down and snatch him from his perch, Sam closed her book, lips tight, shoulders tense, and Danny continued to stare blankly upwards, lost in his thoughts.

"It's close." He muttered after a while; the sky was now stained with reds, pinks, oranges, and deepening blues, "The storm clouds on the horizon…they're bringing it here." He turned to Amethyst and grinned, "I think you can finally pay him back for what he's done to you and your clan…!"

Amethyst's returned smile was dark and twisted, "I would sincerely enjoy that." She hissed, "I would enjoy that very much indeed."

She, Tucker, Sam, and Danny all looked towards the skyline where thick black clouds were gathering.

"Tomorrow morning," Tucker said, "Whatever that storm's bringing will be here tomorrow morning."

No one answered. No one had to.

Next time on 'Melody in Red'

Amethyst: Wow, we're really running out of things to do here, aren't we?

Tucker: Yeah, it's sort of lame.

Sam: I see Amethyst isn't the only one who's matured over two weeks.

Danny: Ooooh, burned!

Tucker: (high, mocking voice) Ooooh, burned! (voice returns to normal) Shut up, ghost-butt…!

Sam: Now, now boy's, can we please reserve this for the bad guys?

Amethyst: Bad guys indeed! They shall all suffer for this! All of them! They shall all perish in my rage! Burn! Burn! Mwhahahahahahahahaha!

Danny: Has she made friends with the Box Ghost or something?

Tucker: Somebody's been watching to much anime…


	11. Chapter 11

Oh dear, I think everyone's going a little OOC now. I'm so Psychonaut obsessed again that I'm getting side-tracked. I wish I could watch Danny Phantom whenever I want to…! (goes and cries in a dark corner because she's Phantom deprived)

Danny: I don't know her.

And I am so very, very, very sorry for the extremely late update! I've been side-tracked and busy all over the place! I'm so sorry! And I'm also sorry for my crappy battle scene writing.

**Eleven: Insert Lame Title Here**

Tucker had been right, the storm clouds hit the next day, drowning Amity Park in a downpour. Amethyst was glaring out the windows all day, barely paying any attention to what was going on around her, more intent upon what was possibly coming with the storm. Trice. She was silent all day, starring off into the distance, and when the gang gathered together at Danny's house that evening, she still hadn't said anything.

"Maybe we were being a little over dramatic." Sam muttered and then looked around as the door opened and then quietly shut again, "Hey Jazz, what's up?"

"It's so tense in here, you'd need a butcher knife to cut through it!" The older girl muttered, looking from one face to another, "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Tucker muttered distractedly, fiddling with his PDA, "Hanging out."

"You, Tucker Foley, are a terrible liar." Jazz muttered, putting her hands on her hips, and she turned her attention to her little brother, "Danny, what's going on?"

"We're waiting for Trice, the over-grown cat…!" The halfa muttered through his fingers, his face in his hands, "And it's killing me…!"

The rain pounded against the window. Amethyst suddenly stiffened, her eyes widening.

"He's coming." She looked at Danny and her sneered, getting to his feet and flashing into ghost mode. Amethyst stood as well, turning slightly translucent, and smiled darkly.

"Let's go."

----

Sam and Tucker stood on the street below, ignoring the rain as they looked up at the three ghosts hovering high in the air above them. Lightning flashed briefly across the sky. Trice was no longer in his human guise but in his true, Yokai Tabby form. No armor.

"_Yokai Fox…!"_ Trice hissed, ears back, _"It's nice to see you're not running anymore! And you, halfa, thanks for joining the feast! As the main course!"_

"Your puns are terrible!" Danny shouted, charging some palm blasts, "Eat ectoplasm!"

And it began. To the two human kids on the sidewalk, it was mere flashes of green and red light from Danny, Amethyst, and Trice, sometimes the scene was momentarily lit by a streak of lightning but for Sam and Tucker it was hard to tell who was winning. Suddenly, one of the flying forms dropped from the sky and landed in the street with a wet, sickening thud and a scream of agony.

"Amethyst!" Tucker ran to the fox girl's side, "Oh crap…! Oh crap, no…!" The Yokai Fox was in her fox form but one of her legs was bent the wrong way and there was terrible looking gash across the top of her head, matting her red fur, "Sam, get over here and help me!" He and the Goth girl dragged Amethyst into the shelter of an alley and started mopping up the wound on their friend's head. Danny suddenly phased through the wall, looking absolutely exhausted.

"It's hopeless…!" He gasped, sagging against a wall with his eyes closed, letting the rain splash onto his face, "He's too strong, even for me…!" He opened one eye and looked at his friends, panting, "I turned invisible and hid from him but it's only a matter of time before he finds me…there has to be something, **anything**, I can do…!"

"_There's one thing…"_ Amethyst's voice was heavy but her violet eyes glittered through the rain, locking with Danny's glowing green ones, _"But…it is dangerous…"_

"What?" Danny crawled on his hands and knees towards the fox, "I'll do anything, Amethyst, I don't care how dangerous it is! I'll do**anything** to protect this place and my friends and my family! Anything, you hear me, anything!"

Amethyst studied his distraught features for a while as Sam and Tucker shared a worried glance.

"_Alright Danny, come closer…"_ The Fenton boy knelt down so that his eyes were level with hers, _"This will hurt terribly but you said you will do anything…I'll have to bite you…and draw out your Yokai Ghost. It is the only way."_

Danny starred at her, blinked rain water from his eyes, and nodded. Sam touched his shoulder and he turned to look at her.

"Come back, okay," She murmured, "Come back to me, to us, as Danny Fenton."

"Right." Danny nodded once and held his arm close to Amethyst's jaws. She slowly, agonizingly, opened her mouth and clamped it down on the boy's arm, let it draw blood for a moment, and then released him. Danny starred at the life liquid welling up from the tears in his uniform, changing the white part a deep crimson.

"Hey, I thought you said this would-AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGG!" Danny's scream was covered by an explosion of thunder that left their ears ringing. He collapsed onto the ground, curled into a little ball of agony, screaming, twitching, crying.

"_Found you!"_ Trice's cat nose shoved its way into the alley the gang was crouched in, _"And now you __**die**__!"_

A blaze of red light, a yowl of pain, a threatening and terrifying hiss of rage, and Trice had pulled back, blood sprouting from a nasty looking gash on his nose. And in the mouth of the alley was Danny. Yokai Ghost Snake Danny. The ends of his white were tainted a light green but not like his ghostly powers, more like a sickly green of death, his glowing green eyes were pupil less and filled with hate, a long white braid twisted from the back of his head and floated in the air of its own accord, a the silver arrow at the end dripping rain water and blood. The sleeves of Danny's black and white uniform had been ripped off and evil looking spines tipped in a poison ness looking green sprouted down his arms and tore through the back of his outfit, his fingernails were claws, pitch black and tipped in green, and his legs were replaced by the curving, scaly body of a sleek black snake with a white underbelly.

"_Yokai!"_ Trice snarled, hackles raising despite the rain, _"How dare you, of all the scum of the earth, obtain Yokai Ghost powers! You do not deserve them!"_

Yokai Danny smirked and bared long fangs in a show of defiance, tail lashing as he crouched low, poised to strike. Trice leapt at him but Danny was faster, swirling around and slicing back with his arm, drawing the dangerous spines through the air, leaving deep rivets across the side of Trice's face.

"Those are poisoned, you know…" Sam felt a chill run up her spine; Danny's voice was harsh, dark, twisted, evil, "Anymore cuts like that and you'll go down in no time."

"_Shut up, halfa!"_ Trice howled, pawing at his bleeding muzzle, _"You're nothing. Without your friends, you are nothing, without your family, you are nothing, without your powers, you are nothing. You are a speck in the universe! Nothing!"_

"I don't care…" Danny now seemed immune to Trice's 'pushing-buttons-technique', he slithered over the street, a haunting, evil smile never leaving his face, "I just want to rip you into little pieces…"

Trice was backing away. Yokai Ghost Danny was dangerous. More dangerous than anything the Yokai Tabby had come across in his entire life. And he was scary. Terrifyingly so.

"_Stay away!"_ The Yokai Tabby leader commanded, _"Get back! Stay away from me!"_

"Coward." Danny hissed, a forked tongue flicking at the air, "Dirty, rotten, coward." A flash of lightning and he vanished though his voice seemed to be echoing from everywhere, "Why a pathetic creature like you even exists…I don't know."

"Where **is** he!?" Tucker was looking all over the place, horror evident in his eyes.

"There!" Sam pointed at Trice and Tucker saw the glint of the silver arrow at the end of a long white braid beneath Trice.

"Just die." Danny spat and, quicker than any of them could blink, he sliced open Trice's stomach and let all of his guts come spilling out. It was raining blood. Trice screamed and toppled over, disintegrating, blood still pooled on the streets. Yokai Ghost Danny was curled in the middle of it, drenched in water and blood, laughing.

"Danny!" Sam cried, leaping up and racing across the street, "Danny!" She paused a few feet from him and shuddered as those cold, empty green eyes found her lilac ones, "Danny…?" She screwed up her courage, "Danny Fenton! Come on, change back!"

"Change back?" The forked tongue flicker in and out again, "Why would I do that?" Fangs glittered as he smiled, "I'm so powerful…! This power…it's addicting…I don't want to give it up…!"

"Danny, let it go!" Amethyst, back in her human form, was limping over to them through the pounding rain, supported by Tucker who looked absolutely terrified at getting close to what Danny had become, "The Yokai Ghost power isn't for you! Let it go! Change back! What about your family!? What about your friends!?"

Danny simply laughed.

"No…" Tucker moaned, "No, no, no…"

CRACK! Yokai Ghost Snake Danny stopped laughing, his eyes wide, head to the side, a red mark growing on his pale cheek. Then he turned slowly, looking at the one who'd hit him. Sam Manson was breathing heavily, tears in her eyes, her face a mask of anger.

"Stupid!" She shouted and another crack of thunder followed as though emphasizing her words, "Idiot! And so many other things I'd love to call you but I can't!" Her fingers were curled into tight fists, "You said you'd come back as Danny Fenton! Liar!"

"Sam…" The spines shrank back into the flesh, his eyes filled with sorrow as pupils faded in, "Sam I…" The tail split in half and formed into two legs upon which Danny stood rather shakily, "Sam I just…" The braid and the silver arrow disintegrated in a mist of red, the rain left lines in the blood splattered across him, "Sam, I'm sorry."

"Dumb boy." The Goth girl muttered, "Now let's get home before someone sees us and the ghost boy standing on the street in a pool of blood."

Danny chuckled weakly, leaning against Sam, and they all made their way down the street, through the rain, Amethyst moaning in Tucker's ear the whole time.

Next Time on 'Melody in Red'

EmptyHeart: We're about finished here, folks, the end is nigh! (dramatic finger pointing ensues) The end, the end, the horrible, horrible end!

Danny: Drama queen.

Sam: Not any more than you, Danny, not any more than you.

Tucker: You're right, EmptyHeart, the first one is lame.

Amethyst: (ignoring them all, pressing random buttons on Danny's cell phone)

EmptyHeart: Mm-hm, but the second one and the third one are cool.

Sam: I can't wait.


	12. Chapter 12

Okay, okay, okay, last chapter. I think. And then we can get on with our merry little lives and I might start the second one sometime or another. This is probably going to be a really short chapter. More of an epilogue than anything else. Please leave me a review and tell me what you thought. Thanks for the support!

**Twelve: Epilogue-Home Once More**

Danny, Amethyst, Sam, and Tucker all stood in the Fenton's basement in front of the open Ghost Portal. Amethyst was going to head home to the Yokai Ghost pits.

"Don't worry about me, you stupid halfa," She sniggered, "I'll go live with the Yokai Wolves or something. Give up fighting for a while. I like how you humans live. I guess there's more to life than fighting."

Sam smiled at her and Tucker sighed, shaking his head. Danny grinned and crossed his arms, un-crossed them, and then crossed them again. Then he let them hang at his sides.

"I hate good-byes…!" He grumbled, "Really, really hate 'em…!"

"I'll visit." Amethyst promised and then paused, reached behind her neck, and unclasped the silver chain the held her precious violet gem, "Here."

"What?" Danny took the necklace from her, "But…this is…I can't…"

"Shut up." Sam muttered and Danny closed his mouth.

"If you ever need any help," Amethyst had turned her back on them and was facing the open portal, "Just step into the Ghost Zone, hold that close to your heart, and call my name. I know it sounds corny but…" She smiled over her shoulder, "See you guys. Bye Tucker! Later Sam! Take care Danny!" And she leapt into the swirling green opening and vanished.

After a moment or two Danny closed the portal and turned to face his two best friends, "Here Sam," He handed her the necklace, "I'm not carrying it around. I'll look girly."

"And like I want to…!" The Goth muttered playfully but put it on anyway.

"Hey, who's up for a round of Ratchet: Deadlocked!?" Tucker called, already at the foot of the stairs.

"Bring it on!" Danny shouted back, chasing his friend up the stairs, "I'll take anyone down!"

"Count me in!" Sam shouted, following them, "And don't you two **dare** change the language on the game like you did last time! That wasn't funny!"

"Yes it was!" Danny snickered, dodging Sam's fist, "The look on your face was priceless!" He laughed as they all moved down the street, "Ah, the good times…!"

"Indeed…!" Tucker replied, swinging his arms around, "And the perfect day!"

"Weirdos." Sam said but couldn't keep the smile off her face.


End file.
